Content Analysis of Treaties

Content analysis of treaties is the systematic, rule-governed coding of the text and design features of international agreements — their obligations, precision, delegation, enforcement, flexibility, and substantive provisions — to study how treaties are written and what explains variation in their design. It applies the established content-analysis methodology codified by Krippendorff to the specialized vocabulary of international law and institutions, often organized around frameworks such as the legalization concept of Abbott and colleagues (2000).